Three weeks into the 2012 season, the talk heated up. Every radio station in the Dallas area wanted to know why in the world the Cowboys drafted seemingly-troubled receiver Dez Bryant. With only 55 yards per game and no touchdowns heading into Week 4, Bryant’s season was on the brink of disaster.

The Numbers

If you want to understand Bryant’s struggles through three weeks, there’s really just one number you need to know: one. That’s the number of times Bryant was targeted downfield 20 yards or more. Yes, in the first three games of the 2012 season, Bryant—a wide receiver with perhaps the best ball skills in the NFL—had one deep target. That’s a major reason Bryant’s efficiency was so poor; he was averaging 12.6 yards-per-catch. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight since Bryant averaged only 13.9 YPC in his first two years in the league, primarily because he never ranked in the top 50 in the NFL in deep target rate.

Over the Cowboys’ final 13 games, Bryant saw 23 targets of at least 20 yards. Although the Cowboys made an obvious effort to get the ball to Bryant downfield, his total deep targets still ranked him only 16th in the NFL by the end of the year. Bryant led the NFL in deep touchdowns with five, and Tony Romo posted 20.5 YPA (yes, 20.5!) when throwing deep to Bryant. Only one of Romo’s deep looks to Bryant was intercepted. Actually, Romo threw only one pick after Week 4 when looking toward Bryant. The Romo-to-Bryant connection produced the third-highest quarterback-to-receiver passer rating in the NFL in 2012.

Even though Bryant clearly became the Cowboys’ No. 1 option by midseason, he still wasn’t targeted enough. Bryant’s 137 targets ranked 11th in the NFL. The receiver caught 67.2 percent of passes thrown his way, and Romo averaged 10.1 YPA on all throws to Bryant. In 2013, the Cowboys will still need to make a better effort to get the ball downfield to Bryant; this year, the average pass to Miles Austin (12.35 yards) actually traveled farther than the average throw to Bryant (12.29 yards).

Another way to analyze Bryant’s targets is to look at the routes on which they came—something I tracked for the first year.

Back Shoulders: (7)

Comebacks: (14)

Corners: (4)

Curls/Hitches: (21)

Digs/Ins: (7)

Drags: (5)

Fades: (3)

Flats: (0)

Go’s: (19)

Hitch-and-Go’s: (1)

Outs: (3)

Out-and-Up: (1)

Posts: (7)

Scrambles: (7)

Screens: (6)

Seams: (0)

Slants: (33)

Smashes: (0)

Wheel: (1)

You can see an abundance of screens and hitches, but perhaps not enough deep routes. Bryant was targeted on a straight ‘go’ route just over one time per game in 2012.

Maybe the biggest area of improvement for the third-year receiver in 2012 was his ability to gain yards after the catch. Whereas Bryant often danced around after catching the ball in prior years, he made an obvious effort to get up the field this season. It showed; Bryant averaged 5.1 YAC per reception after posting 4.6 and 4.9 in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

On top of all that, Bryant’s catch rate will almost assuredly improve in 2013. I counted Bryant as dropping 11 passes this year—8.0 percent of his targets. When healthy, you’d expect Bryant’s drop rate to be closer to 5.0 percent or less.

Final 2012 Grade

The Cowboys finished 8-8 in 2012, but that record likely would have been a lot worse without Bryant. The receiver is so important to the productivity of the Cowboys’ offense that one of the primary goals for the coaching staff this offseason should be finding creative ways to get the ball to Bryant downfield. In the midst of his five-year, $11.8 million rookie deal, Bryant’s salary makes him one of the best cap values in the NFL.